Upgrading Sometimes Causes Data Loss

It is very important that you backup your 1Password data before upgrading to new versions.

The reason backups are critical is there is a bug in the iTunes App Store upgrade process. This bug first appeared in version 2.0 of the iPhone/iPod touch firmware and has caused problems for some people, resulting in all their data being deleted on the iPhone. Apple has been trying to fix this and apparently has had some success as the frequency of this problem has been reduced. Be sure to upgrade to the latest firmware version to minimize the risk.

Restoring From Mac Version of 1Password

If you are a Mac or PC user and have been syncing with the desktop version of 1Password, you can simply sync your iPhone/iPod touch with the Desktop to restore your data. Any recent changes that were not synced with the Mac or PC will be lost, but if you synced recently this is likely not an issue.

Restoring From 1Password Backup

Starting in version 2.1 a Backup and Restore feature is available in 1Password. Please see the How do I backup my data? FAQ for more details.

Restoring From iTunes Backup

If your iTunes backup was done before this happened you can use it. However, you have to be careful because when you connect your iPhone to your computer, iTunes automatically overwrites the existing backup with a new one. If you just lost your data on the device, this will effectively delete your previous backup from iTunes.

To prevent this, you need to do the following:

Disable automatic syncing for your iPhone in iTunes’ preferences before you connect the iPhone again (iTunes > Preferences > Devices > Disable automatic syncing for all iPhones and iPods).

Connect your iPhone and wait until it appears in the iTunes sidebar. Since syncing is disabled, iTunes won’t back up your data automatically.

Right-click (or control click) on the iPhone and select “Restore from backup”.

If you have already overwritten the previous backup then you would need to use Time Machine or your other preferred backup/restore application to restore the following folder to you Mac to a version that exists before the most recent backup was done. On Mac, the backup is stored in: